--- title: Optimizing Matco-Norca’s Inventory description: "

Matco-Norca began in 1952 as the pioneer import distributor of plumbing products. Since then, Matco- Norca has grown to become a leading supplier of globally sourced, code compliant Plumbi" image: https://thrivetech.com/hubfs/_Bold%20Lettering%20Tumblr%20Banner%20(7).png --- [![ClickCease](https://monitor.clickcease.com)](https://www.clickcease.com) [![ClickCease](https://monitor.clickcease.com/conversions/conversions.aspx?value=0)](https://www.clickcease.com) # Optimizing Matco-Norca’s Inventory --- [Matco-Norca](https://www.matco-norca.com/) began in 1952 as the pioneer import distributor of plumbing products. Since then, Matco- Norca has grown to become a leading supplier of globally sourced, code compliant Plumbing & PVF (Pipe Valve and Fittings) products for residential, commercial and industrial applications. Throughout the years they have established themselves as a leader by stocking a broad product line that boasts superior quality and value for their customers. Agility, responsiveness, and high customer satisfaction are key tenets of Matco-Norca’s success. Matco-Norca constantly introduces new products to meet upcoming market requirements. This adds to an already broad product offering. As part of their ongoing commitment to high customer satisfaction, Matco-Norca strives hard to keep products in stock that their customers want. They respond quickly to customer demand from their national distribution centers in New York, Texas, California, and Georgia; and from regional warehouses in Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Tampa, and Sacramento. ## **The Challenge ** One of the challenges Matco-Norca faced as a leading importer of plumbing materials was lead times of three months or longer. Combined with strong seasonal demand and twelve thousand stocked items, the long lead times made inventory replenishment challenging to say the least. “We often stocked out of items in season due to inadequacies in our ERP system. The ERP system we use employs a moving average to calculate inventory buys. So it uses the sales numbers of prior months (when we were not in season) as our forecast and repeatedly did not buy enough for our upcoming seasonal demand,” says John Grasso, Vice President of Operations. “With lead times like ours, we can’t afford to buy the wrong quantities because it will be several months before orders we place now get here.” “Matco-Norca required a robust demand and supply planning tool that would be suitable for a business with seasonal demand patterns, long lead times, many suppliers and multiple distribution centers.” ## **The Solution ** To address these challenges, Matco-Norca began the search for an advanced inventory forecasting system in January 2008. “We looked at several vendors but in the end we chose Thrive not only because their solution addressed our specific challenges, but because they understood our business and had experience in our space. We also wanted a company that would partner with us to help us continually improve our supply chain processes,” states Grasso. “We really liked Thrive’s Software as a Service (SaaS) model. That way, the vendor takes on the responsibility to set up and maintain the servers, operating system, and database in addition to their application. Our IT staff doesn’t get burdened with another system to maintain, and we can focus on our core business.” ## **The Implementation ** One of the first processes in the implementation was setting up the automated interfaces from the ERP system to Thrive’s system so that Thrive is constantly updated with appropriate inventory data like inventory balances, open orders, etc. “The current version of our ERP system does not have a database or a good export utility so we really relied on Thrive’s technical staff to make it happen. Thrive did a tremendous job developing custom interfaces for us,” says Grasso. “Every day I get an updated overview of inventory position so that I can manage trends and drill down into any issues. Thrive’s system crunches all the numbers overnight and in the morning the buyers have an organized, efficient workflow of vendor POs they need to place, as well as alerts for items that are stocked out or that might stock out soon.” ## Similar posts insights ### [The hidden costs squeezing plumbing & PVF distribution margins (March 2026)](https://thrivetech.com/taking-stock/the-hidden-costs-squeezing-plumbing-pvf-distribution-margins-march-2026) In the News ### [Industry-Leading Building Products Distributor Goes Digital with Inventory Optimization from Thrive Technologies](https://thrivetech.com/taking-stock/press-releases/dwdistribution) insights ### [Manage Your Seasonality & Low-Selling SKUs Automatically (March 2025)](https://thrivetech.com/taking-stock/manage-your-seasonality-low-selling-skus-automatically-march-2025) ### Get customized insights straight to your inbox Sign up for our monthly Taking Stock newsletter to receive actionable insights for wholesaler success. ## Subscribe * indicates required First Name * Last Name * TITLE * Company * Email Address *     ![](https://px.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=6925994&fmt=gif) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "Organization", "address" : { "@type" : "PostalAddress", "addressLocality" : "Marietta", "addressRegion" : "GA", "postalCode" : "30064", "streetAddress" : "707 Whitlock Ave. Suite H13" }, "contactPoint" : [ { "@type" : "ContactPoint", "contactType" : "Customer Support", "email" : "info@thrivetech.com", "telephone" : "770-222-8599" } ], "description" : "We solve the persistent inventory blind spots of SKU-intensive companies with patent-pending inventory optimization technologies that work with your ERP to minimize unpredictability and react more quickly to change.", "hasOfferCatalog" : { "@type" : "OfferCatalog", "itemListElement" : [ { "@type" : "Offer", "itemOffered" : { "@type" : "Service", "description" : "You rely on your ERP to help you manage it all. And that works OK, at best, for high-demand, predictable SKU items, but for low-demand, unpredictable SKUs, that’s another story. It doesn't keep key parts in stock or buys too much of SKUs that are no longer selling because their sales are not predictable. Our inventory optimization software targets what constrains the functionality of your current ERP: unpredictable demand from low-selling SKUs, and slow response time to demand and supply changes. These are your inventory blind spots, and we can help you address them – simply.", "name" : "ERP Inventory Optimizers", "url" : "https://thrivetech.com/inventory-optimization" } }, { "@type" : "Offer", "itemOffered" : { "@type" : "Service", "description" : "Gain Control of Unpredictable Inventory Demand With Thermostock. Automatically identify your blind spots that result from unpredictable low-selling SKUs with our patent-pending AI technology Thermostock and prevent up to 90% of your dead stock.", "name" : "Thermostock AI Inventory Demand Solution", "url" : "https://thrivetech.com/thermostock" } }, { "@type" : "Offer", "itemOffered" : { "@type" : "Service", "description" : "Improve your forecast and lead-time accuracy with Tiltmeter®, our patent-pending technology that automatically detects demand and supply changes faster than your ERP. Tiltmeter increases the speed your existing purchasing system reacts to demand and supply changes for hundreds of thousands of SKUs across multiple locations. The rapid alert system in Tiltmeter automatically alerts your team and requests validation of significant changes. Buyers can then adjust inventory settings based on the new forecasts to reduce lost sales and dead stock.", "name" : "Tiltmeter Demand and Supply Chain Detection Software", "url" : "https://thrivetech.com/tiltmeter" } }, { "@type" : "Offer", "itemOffered" : { "@type" : "Service", "description" : "Improve your inventory performance and profitability with our digital purchasing system that takes the guesswork out of forecasting and replenishment.", "name" : "Enterprise Purchasing System for Wholesale Distributors", "url" : "https://thrivetech.com/forecasting-and-replenishment" } }, { "@type" : "Offer", "itemOffered" : { "@type" : "Service", "description" : "An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system integration is all it takes to optimize your inventory blind spots for peak performance. 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